Lifetime
by Shadydrmr
Summary: A songfic to Better than Ezra's song Lifetime A sad, yet romantic story. SORATO.


**_RING! RING!_**

Sora Takenouchi shoved her alarm clock off her night stand. Grumbling she sat up and looked at the dress hanging on her closet door. Smiling, she climbed out of bed and headed to take a quick shower. She picked up her alarm clock that read 8am. She needed to meet Yamato and Taichi in and hour so she needed to be quick.

By the time Sora was done with everything she had five minutes to get to the school that was at least a twenty minute drive. If she drove quickly she knew that she might make it in ten. Climbing into her Mistubishi (A/N c'mon people she's in college, she's not gonna have enoguh money to pay for an expensive car.) Sora turned her key in the ignition and backed on to the road.

As she was crossing the thirteenth intersection, she could see the school in the distance. The light turned yellow as she neared the intersection. Lacking the patience to wait the few minutes until the light returned to green, Sora sped through the intersection right as the light flashed red.

**_SCREEECH!_**

Sora's car jumped as a pick up truck smashed into its side. Sora's eyes focused on the red goo painted with pieces of glass that covered the steering wheel, passenger seat and floor. Sora coughed slightly as her body aknowleged the pain she was in before her world became dark, escaping the pain that was starting.

* * *

Yamato Ishida woke up with a start. He looked at his alarm clock and fell back in his bed as he saw that it read he had another half hour before he needed to be up. He knew he was anxious for his graduation later on that day. His two best friends were going to be there with him today. Sora receiving her BA in business management and design, while Yamato received his degree in teaching music. Taichi, on the other hand, was going as support for his friends since their university didn't aknowledge girl watching and sleeping a degree worth backing. Laughing to himself, Yamato thought of the event he had planned for that night. He smiled as he decided a nice shower was necessary to prepare himself.

After a long relaxing shower, and quickly dressing himself in a nice shirt, dressy pants and nice shoes, Yamato was trying in vein to tie his tie around his neck.

"Dude, maybe you should call Sora to do that for you." Yamato rolled his eyes as he looked at Taichi's reflection in the mirror. His brown haired friend wore a smirk on his face as he slid his hands into his pants' pockets to add to his cool façade leaning on the door frame.

"Shut up, Tai. She's got enough to worry about." Yamato grumbled as he became flustered with his stubborn tie.

"Do you need help, dude?" Taichi stepped to help his friend as Yamato's hands resigned to his sides. "So, Sor's gonna meet us at the auditorium at 9 right?" Taichi asked as he stepped back to admire his handy work. Yamato nodded as he loosened the tie a bit before smiling at his friend.

"I can't wait to see her today. She's gonna look beautiful." Taichi rolled his eyes as Yamato walked to his dresser and took something off the top.

"You two always surprise me, you know that?" Yamato raised his eyebrow in confusion as Taichi took the small box from his blonde friend's hands. "She's gonna freak when she sees this, you know? She won't believe you really bought it for her." Yamato smiled as Taichi examined the ring. A golden band with a pink diamond in the center with a small leaf design surrounding the gem. Inside the band the inscription "Until the day I die and forever after" Faking a gagging sound, Taichi handed the ring and its box to the smiling blonde.

"Dude, shut up. As long as she says 'yes' I'll be happy. That's all that matters today." Taichi shook his head as he left the room, the blonde following close behind.

"You think she'll say yes to a fool like you?" Yamato punched Taichi's arm as he grabbed his car keys from their hook.

"Get in the car, you dumbass!" Yamato stated as he turned the car on. Taichi and him drove to the school with twenty minutes to wait for their friend.

"Yamato! Taichi!" The two friends turned their heads as they saw their younger siblings rushing towards them. "Taichi, you need to come sit with us. The ceremony's gonna start soon." The brown haired girl smiled at her older brother who grudgingly left the side of his best friend.

"Tell Sora that we beat her!" Taichi joked as he followed his sister and Takeru to their seats in the field. Leaving Yamato to enter the auditorium and wait for his girlfriend to arrive.

Sora still had yet to arrive as the graduates lined up to start the big walk. Yamato's fingers traced the box in his pocket as he glanced worriedly at the clock. "C'mon, Sor, where are you, baby?" Yamato whispered as he started to walk towards the large group gathered to watch the event.

"Ishida, Yamato," the dean shook the tall blonde's hand, posing for the picture needed. Searching the audience once over, Yamato found no sign of his redheaded love. However, he found her parents whispering to a gloomy Taichi at the back of the crowd.

After the ceremony closed, Yamato made his way through the crowd towards his and Sora's families and friends. All eyes focused on him as he looked around at the mournful expressions on all of the faces.

_**Allie woke up 8AM **_

_**Graduation day. **_

_**Got into a car, **_

**_And crashed along the way_.**

"Ishida, wake up! C'mon you dumb fuck!" Taichi's fist connected with Yamato's rib cage, causing the musician to recoil in to a fetal position, his eyes looking up at his concerned, yet pissed, friend's face. "Dude, don't give me that look. If you don't say goodbye now, you'll never have any proper closer." Tai offered his hand as he knelt eye level with the mourning man on the bed. "She wouldn't want you to act like this."

Nodding begrudgingly, Yamato raised himself from his bed, still clad in the outfit he'd worn to his graduation. Now it was wrinkly and unkept from being worn three days in a row. Looking his friend up and down, Taichi handed his friend a pair of jeans and a button up shirt.

Taichi and Yamato drove in silence to Sora's house where the wake was to take place. They parked down the block from the house, the house full of people, but bleeding with sorrow. The two men found family members and friends of Sora's they hadn't seen in years. As they entered the over flowing house, Yamato's eyes fell on the urn sitting in the middle of the room. A picture of his beloved red head was placed next to it, another picture of her and her parents sat on the other side, and next to that was a picture taken when Yamato and Sora had started dating almost six years ago with the couple and Taichi sitting next to Mimi's head sticking out of the sand.

"YAMATO!" Mimi's voice announced the girl's arrival as she embraced her friend. Patting Mimi's back, Yamato's eyes never left the urn.

"Meems, he's not exactly in the most social of moods right now." Taichi whispered as he lead the honey haired girl away from the blonde man and towards the front door. After a few minutes, Yamato approached the two, his jacket over his arm as he motioned for them to follow him. Reaching his car, Yamato climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine, both Taichi and Mimi exchanged a worried expression as they climbed into the car. Taichi took his seat in the back, while Mimi sat down in the passenger's seat.

"Um...Matt," Mimi pointed to the object on Yamato's lap. "Is that what I think it is?" Yamato nodded as his hand rubbed the urn on his lap.

"HOLY SHIT! Dude, you did NOT just steal Sora's urn from her wake!" Taichi shouted as he stared at the marble box on his friend's lap.

"Dude, shut up. I know what I'm doing." Taichi fell against the back of his seat, his hand falling over his face as Yamato continued to drive towards an unknown destination.

"For the first time since graduation." Taichi mumbled.

"Yama, where are we going?" Mimi asked after a few minutes of silence. Yamato smiled as he looked at Mimi. The honey haired girl smiled at her friend, her eyes filled with concern. Yamato remembered when Mimi had pink hair and was boy crazy. Now she was back to her natural hair color and was going steady with Jyou. "Yama?" Mimi placed her hand on her friend's shoulder to catch his attention.

"Sora and I used to go to this beach all the time to watch the stars at night." Yamato smiled to himself before he continued. "It was our place. Just for us to run away to when we wanted alone time." Mimi and Taichi looked at the blonde with sad smiles on their faces.

_**When we arrived late to the wake, **_

_**Stole the urn while they**_

_**Looked away, **_

_**And drove to the beach **_

_**'Cause I knew you'd want it**_

_**That way.** _

Yamato parked under a willow tree next to a cliff that was a short drop from a beautiful beach. As he sat in the driver's seat, his mind was filled with memories of past visits.

"_Sora, what are you doing?" Yamato asked as he climbed up from the side of the cliff to find his girlfriend lying on the hood of his car. She smiled at him as she sung to radio set up next to their makeshift picnic. Yamato approached her, placing a quick, light kiss on her lips, before taking his spot besides her. Resting her head on his shoulder, Yamato wrapped a blanket across their shoulders, his arm slipping around her side. _

"_This one goes out to the one I love." Sora whispered as she nuzzled into her boyfriend's neck, placing small kisses up and down his neck. "Sunrises are so beautiful, Yama." Sora whispered as she looked into the night sky as it mixed with the new day._

"_Nothing's as beautiful as you, Sor." Yamato whispered against her head. Sora hit his arm and smiled._

"_You flirt! Why do you say such things when you know you have me already?" Sora grinned as she pulled away from the blonde. Before the red head could slip off the hood of the car, Yamato caught the girl and pinned her wrists to the car before planting an amazingly passionate kiss on her lips. _

"_Because I never want you to think I take you for granted. Everything's gonna get more hectic after graduation. I don't want you to ever forget how much I love you." Sora giggled as she kissed her boyfriend's lips again. _

"_I have something for you, baby." Sliding from his embrace, the red head went to her bag on the passenger's seat and removed a CD. "I know how stressful things are gonna get with our new jobs and everything. But I made this for you." Yamato took the CD from the tanned hands of the designer. "The only thing is- you can't listen to it until the night of graduation." Sora's grin spread from ear to ear as she saw the pout forming on the musician's face._

"_That's not fair." He whispered before her lips cut him off in another passionate kiss._

_**And you were standing**_

_**On the hood of the car**_

_**Singing out loud**_

_**When the sun came up.**_

_**And I know I wasn't right,**_

_**But it felt so good.**_

_**And your mother didn't mind,**_

_**Like I thought she would.**_

_**And that REM song was playing**_

_**In my mind.**_

_**And three and a half minutes**_

_**Felt like a lifetime**_

_**It felt like a lifetime**_

Mimi looked at the beautiful view as she sat on the edge of the cliff. Taichi sat on the hood of the car, watching Yamato as he leaned against the willow tree's trunk. They sat there in silence for about a half hour, before Taichi walked over to hug Mimi's tear racked body.

"Shh." He tried to soothe the sobbing girl. "It's ok. What's wrong, Meems?" Mimi wiped her face with her hand before looking out at the ocean again.

"I feel so useless and out of place. I couldn't do anything to save her! We had no chance to say good bye for real, you know! And than I'm over here crying my eyes out, while Yamato is just holding her...the..." Mimi burst into a fit of tears, burying her face into Taichi's chest. As he held Mimi close to him, stroking her hair in attempt to soothe her, his eyes wandered to the lone blonde. Taichi knew he was day dreaming, remembering all of moments he had spent here with the love of his life. A pang of envy and regret ripped through the athlete's body. He was envious that his friends had found such a strong love, but regretted the pain that his best friend was silently suffering.

"Yamato, stop being a fucking hero!" Taichi snapped, catching his friend's bewildered attention. "We all know how bad you're feeling. She was taken from all of us! You can't keep all of your emotions locked inside, especially when it comes to Sora!" Yamato looked away, his eyes filled with emotion, yet lacking all true emotion.

Yamato's eyes glossed over again as he remembered one of the last big fights the couple had. He'd been so absorbed and stressed out over his term paper that he had started neglecting his health and sleep. Sora had become so outraged when Yamato passed out during one of their lunches, that she yelled at him for being so stubborn. She knew he was to prideful to ask for help, but she told him he needed to ask because nobody can help him unless they know what the problem is. He'd made up for the added stress he'd unknowingly put her with a romantic dinner at their spot.

_**And you move like water**_

_**I could drown in you.**_

_**And I fell so deep once,**_

_**Till you pulled me through**_

_**You would tell me**_

_**"No one is allowed to be so proud**_

_**They never reach out**_

_**When they're giving up."**_

"I miss her so much right now, Taichi. I know the pain will never stop, and I know she would be mad if I kept it all inside," Yamato stated as he walked towards the cliff, the urn held close to his chest. "I know though, that Sora would hate to be confined to this container for the rest of eternity. This, Sora, this is my good bye. I love you with all my heart, baby, you were taken from me too soon." Yamato opened the lid to the container and allowed the wind to take the ashes where ever the wind blows. "When I see you again, baby, I'll have a whole life to fill you in on. A life I wanted to spend with you. I love you." Yamato said, surprising both Taichi and Mimi with how heartfelt and emtoional his words were. Mimi started to cry again as she caught the tears flow down Taichi's cheek. The three people turned after they'd said their proper goodbyes and climbed back into the car. The drive home was filled with silence, but drenched in melancholy.

_**And I know I wasn't right,**_

_**But it felt so good.**_

_**And your mother didn't mind,**_

_**Like I thought she would.**_

_**And that REM song was playing**_

_**In my mind.**_

_**And three and a half minutes**_

_**Felt like a lifetime**_

_**Are you sitting in the lights?**_

_**Or combing your hair again,**_

_**And talking in rhymes?**_

_**Are you sitting in the lights?**_

Yamato arrived to an empty house, all the lights were off, no sign of life present. He walked up the flights of stairs until he reached his apartment. Being careful not to awake his dog, he made his way to his room. Taking the CD Sora'd given him a few weeks earlier, Yamato slipped it into the CD player. There was a knock at the door, echoing through the apartment and waking the rottweiler from its sleep.

"Shhh, Tink!" Yamato clapped his hands, causing the dog to stop barking as Yamato opened the door. Mr and Mrs Takenouchi looked at Yamato with knowing looks on their faces.

"Would you guys like some tea? I could put a cup of coffee up." Yamato moved to head towards the kitchen, until Mrs Takenouchi's hand stopped him.

"No thank you,Yamato, sweety. We don't want to sound so mean, in a way the urn is as much your's as it is ours, but we'd like her back." Yamato hesitated before he picked the empty marble box up from the table next to the door. He smiled shyly as he handed the urn to Sora's mother who looked nowhere near as shocked about the lack of content as Yamato had expected. "Thank you, Yamato."

"Come back whenever, we could have dinner or something." The blonde tried to sound social and polite as Mrs Takenouchi sighed and left as her husband shook his head as he followed his wife. Yamato shut the door and returned to his room.

Laying on his bed REM's song "This one goes out to the one I love" flooded the empty house. Sweeping every corner, and wrapping around Yamato like a warm hug, taking him back to the memory of Sora sitting on his car. Wrapped in his arms, neither knowing of what was to come on graduation day.

**_When I got home, heard the phone,_**

**_Your parents had arrived._**

**_And your dad set his jaw_**

**_Your mom just smiled and sighed._**

**_But they left soon_**

**_And I went to my room._**

**_Played that disc that you'd given me,_**

**_And I shut my eyes_**

**_Swear I could hear the sea._**

**_When we were standing_**

**_On the hood of your car_**

**_Singing out loud when the sun came up._**

**_And I know I wasn't right,_**

**_But it felt so good._**

**_And your mother didn't mind,_**

**_Like I thought she would._**

**_And that REM song was playing_**

**_In my mind._**

**_And three and a half minutes,_**

**_Three and a half minutes,_**

**_Felt like a lifetime._**

Yamato sighed as he played with the ring meant to go to his deceased love. Smiling softly as the picture on his computer screen he whispered a soft "I love you" before he closed his eyes to sleep. Allowing the tears to finally fall down his cheeks.


End file.
